Defence calls for case against suspected Nazi killer to be dropped

Nov 2, 2009, 15:50 GMT

   Aachen, Germany - Lawyers defending a former Nazi SS trooper accused of murdering three civilians in German-occupied Netherlands during World War II called Monday for the case to be dropped.

   Heinrich Boere, 88, had been sentenced to death in absentia by a Dutch court in 1949 for the killings. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment, but Boere escaped prison by fleeing to Germany.

   A German court charged Boere with the killings in April 2008, but his lawyer argued that he could not be tried for the same crime twice.

At the start of the second day's proceedings in Aachen, near the Dutch border, the court rejected a motion questioning the impartiality of chief prosecutor Ulrich Mass.

The relatives of Boere's victims were represented by their lawyers.

'If you really have regrets, then accept the verdict of the judge, don't appeal the penalty that is imposed upon you,' read a statement by the son of one of Boere's alleged victims, Tuin de Groot.

The lawyer representing the sons of another victim, Fritz Bicknese, said the brothers were bitter about the fact that Boere had been free for decades, despite having confessed to the deeds.

'This bitterness makes it unbearable for them to set foot in the Federal Republic of Germany,' said their lawyer Wolfgang Heiermann.    Boere is accused of being part of Nazi SS killer unit that shot dead three Dutchmen in Breda, Voorschoten and Wassenaar in July and September 1944.

   The 88-year-old followed the second day of the trial from his wheelchair, his head bowed.

Boere is sixth on a list of the 10 most wanted Nazi war criminals issued by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem.

   Top of the list is John Demjanjuk, who is to go on trial in Germany next month accused of involvement in mass murder of Jews in the Nazi death camp at Sobibor in German-occupied Poland.